New New Media and Politics

As New New Media has evolved, it has effected nearly every aspect of our lives. Politics is no exception. As Media has evolved, so has political campaigning. From the first radio broadcasted speeches in the early 1900s, to the first televised presidential debates in the 60s, politics has once again taken another leap forward into new new media, in particularly the internet. The internet has become such an incredibly huge medium, it was inevitable that those on the campaign trail would use it to boost their campaigns, however nobody would have guessed the scale of usage that some candidates would put forth. Many people say this is a very big reason why Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election. Many people said he successfully harnessed the internet to his advantage.

The large scale use of internet for presidential elections was pioneered by Howard Dean in the 2004 election. However Dean failed to win even the Democratic Primary, he was the mastermind behind president Obama's political campaign on the internet, which seemed to be a very crucial facet of his election. President Obama's inauguration was the first inauguration to be widely streamed online, I remember watching it in my Chemistry teachers room as a sophomore.

Immediately following his inauguration, President Obama and his staff changed the presidential website as well, whitehouse.gov. Under previous administrations it had just been used for publishing documents and such. Now there is a blog, photos, streaming videos, podcasts and a sign up for email alerts as well. The Obama administration has pioneered and revolutionized the use of the internet for campaigning and propaganda publishing, reaching a vastly larger audience, overshadowing the use of old new media.